


Happier

by decaying_orbit



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Fratricide, Genji's murder, Pre-Overwatch, Shimada Brothers, Young Genji Shimada, Young Hanzo Shimada, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:48:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23113483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decaying_orbit/pseuds/decaying_orbit
Summary: Genji makes a decision. Hanzo makes his sooner.
Relationships: Genji Shimada & Hanzo Shimada
Comments: 1
Kudos: 27





	Happier

**Author's Note:**

> I have been thinking about the song 'Happier' by Marshmello forever for these two and how well that fits. I love Genji as a character and I think he can be a really interesting and complex character. So I'm making him one.
> 
> I wrote this in like an hour while watching the office who knows maybe i'll come back to it with more
> 
> Anyway, feedback is always welcome.  
> Thank you for reading!

_“Hanzo, I have something I have must speak with you about.”_

It had been almost a month since the meeting with the Elders, where Genji had sat for five hours at his brother’s side while they had droned on and on about clan business and future business deals and failed expectations. The last part about him, he knew. The veiled threats of him needing to clean his act up, to step into his position in the clan. The references to the absence of a left hand, how it was his responsibility to fulfill it and all that nonsense.

Genji couldn’t care less about that, if he were to be honest. He didn’t have the best poker face, either, so he was certain it showed. If the constant looks and pressure he was under in the compound were anything to judge by, he was obvious. Things had been getting worse over the past weeks. The Elders were making more pointed comments. Glares becoming stronger and more obvious. Tension was rising, things were moving into _something_. He just didn’t know what.

_“Of course, brother.”_

Really, things had been building since their father’s death. Since Hanzo had taken over as the head of the Clan. Despite the claims otherwise, Genji had been pulling away from his normal scenes. Seeing his brother grow wearier, more withdrawn over the six months after their father had passed pushing him to adjust, not attending as many parties. Stopping almost all except the most discrete of relationships. Anything to make things even just a bit easier on Hanzo.

Things were still reaching their breaking point, however. Genji knew he had to confront what he had known for his whole life; That he did not want any part of the Shimada Empire. That, while he enjoyed the benefits of it- the money, the power, the gifts and fame- he did not want the cost incurred. He didn’t want to be his brother’s left hand.

 _A hand in the dark, a hand behind your back._ His father had once whispered in explanation him, explaining the position. _The hand that holds a knife while you shake with your right. A hidden weapon, a hidden tool.  
Yours will be the hands that get dirty, so your brother’s may remain clean._

Genji didn’t want to be a part of this anymore.

_“Do you think we could meet at the temple later tonight? It is important.”_

He couldn’t become what his brother needed of him. His being there and not taking that role would cause Hanzo problems. If he couldn’t be what he needed to, and he couldn’t remain than the answer for what he had to do was obvious.

_ - - - - - 

“Hanzo, I have something I need to tell you.” Genji begins, stomach twisting as he looked to his brother’s impassive face. There were dark bags under Hanzo’s eyes, he looked sick. The Elders had been calling him into meetings all week and Genji wondered if he should push the talk off, wait until whatever was getting the Elders up in a frenzy died down.

No, no, he shakes his head a bit, now or never.

“I was thinking the same, Genji. I have something I need to discuss with you as well.” Hanzo’s expression didn’t change, the same unnerving blank countenance.

“If I could go first, brother?” Hanzo nods, so Genji takes a deep breath before he continues, “Things have become… different between us. We’ve been arguing, whenever we speak. I know we don’t see eye to eye on many things, but it’s been getting worse since father passed.”

Genji pauses, but when there’s no reaction from Hanzo he says, “I know I’ve said things to you, recently,”

_Genji yelling at Hanzo that he’s a cold-hearted bastard. That he can’t feel anything. That Hanzo would have rather have been an only child, that he would have rather Genji died than their father, than their mother._

“and you have said things to me,”

 _Hanzo shouting back that Genji is a_ child _who doesn’t know any better. Who is throwing away their name. Who is a dishonor on their family. That, if their mother was alive to see him, she would have been ashamed of the man he was becoming, that their father already had been._

“and we can’t take those back, even though I am sorry for what I’ve said. But we only have each other, Hanzo. I don’t want to lose you. You’re standing right in front of me, but I feel like you’re not here anymore. You’re all I have left, aniki. But I can’t be what you need me to, what the clan needs me to be.”

Genji can’t stand watching Hanzo any longer. A shadow flickers over his brother’s face at the last sentence. He turns around, looking at the tapestry and swallowing. His father had loved this place dearly, it was where they could find him when he wanted to get away from everything. Genji had thought it would be a good place to have the conversation, but now being in the same place father had loved for this was making him nausea.

“I know things have been hard for you, that this is hard for you, and I don’t want to make it harder. So… I’m leaving.”

"Yes, you are.”

Before Genji can question what Hanzo means, what he was talking about. Before he can turn to ask, to look. Pain pierces through his chest. Genji coughs once, bringing a hand up to his mouth. Coughing again into his hand as the pain begins to spread. Two more flares spear him. He looks down. The hand held to his mouth is read. The tips of three arrows protruding from his chest.

Lowering his hand to his chest, disbelief has him staggering forward while shock keeps him from feeling the worst of it from burning through him. Genji manages to turn, facing his brother who has another arrow nocked and drawn. The fletching is brushing Hanzo’s cheek, the look on his brother’s face one that he’s seen a thousand times, though never directed at _him_. Total focus and something… absent. As though he were just a target, not even there to move.

Hanzo’s lips are moving but everything is muffled and underwater.

“Ah… A-Aniki?” Genji gasps, pain flaring bright with each breath.

“Good-bye, Genji.”

Blue light bursts with the accompaniment of twin roars, one’s he knows all too well. Genji reels backwards as Hanzo’s dragons spring to life. Instinctively grasping for his sword and shuriken. But his chest cannot fill with enough air, and he feels as though he is being torn asunder by betrayal, far before the dragons even reach him.

And then…

everything is burningburningburning

and there is blood and agony and fear

And then….

Genji _screams and_ _he is_ _dying_

and then…

_there’s nothing._


End file.
